Primary "Product"

At this point in my career, as a student, I am learning and growing as a professional in the fashion and retail management field. As such, my “primary product” is not an actual product but rather a service – based on my many traits, skills, and talents – essentially my personal brand.  “Every part of a marketing communications mix impacts the brand: advertising, design, market research, public relations, investor relations and social responsibility” (More Than A Name, Melissa Davis, 9). In marketing my personal brand to others I will need to clearly communicate to my target audience and advertise my skills, traits, and talents which include a good work ethic, great listener, well organized, detail oriented, responsible, a good communicator, passionate, creative, and up to date with the latest fashion trends.  This will help people to be drawn to my personal brand.  As well, I will need to package myself so that it is consistent with my message.   “Knowledge of trends can be used to generate ideas or campaigns, or be fed into a longer-term brand strategy” (More Than A Name, 128). If a company is looking for someone that will work hard, stay up to date on trends, and explore new and creative ideas that will make the brand stay “fresh”, then they have found the right person.   “A brand may succeed in getting your attention, but to be memorable it must ‘engage’ you” (More Than A Name, Melissa Davis, 106). I will need to promote my brand in such a way that people are so interested in it that they actually search for it.  This will not only attract new customers but will hopefully attract them to all items associated with the brand.  This will increase the successfulness of the brand and increase profits and sales. A brand should be more than just getting customers through the door. 

How has fashion, design, and creativity changed you?

Over the years I have not really thought about who I am as a person. Not until recently did I really start to think about the question "Who am I?". I did not grow up in a place where fashion and design were important to people. As a result, I always felt alone in some way until just recently. I just moved to Las Vegas a couple months ago for my first quarter of college. It is the first time I have had to deal with the real world and have many first-time experiences. With these situations I have faced I have tried to learn from them and grow as an individual. “Creativity has been pegged to conducive environments, perfect collaborators, personality traits, serendipity, and even spiritual muses” (http://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/creativity). Due to the fact that I am going to the Art Institute in Las Vegas, I am surrounded by creative people everyday. I am always seeing new trends and looks and I find them inspiring. “…pointing to inspiring people and allowing ourselves to be impressed is very important.  It teaches us that great things are possible” (http://www.relaxfocussucceed.com/Articles/2003040001.htm). Being inspired by all the students around me has made me realize that there is nothing to be afraid of. Over the years, I have been a very shy person and I have not had the confidence to say what I am thinking. This is because I fear that if my ideas are different compared to other peoples then I am wrong, but after seeing how creative people can be I have realized that difference is good. People are never going to view something the same way. It is always going to be different. “The fashion world understands that creativity is a collaborative and community affair” (http://learcenter.org/pdf/RTSControlofCreativity.pdf). Since I am studying fashion, this realization has led me to try new looks. It is making me expand my ideas and outlook as a fashion professional and it will continue to grow as I experience more in my lifetime. 

How To Make It In America Analysis

In How To Make It In America, I was able to see what to do and what not to do when trying to create a brand. From the beginning of the show Cam and Ben did not have a plan whatsoever. They simply just went with the flow. When they first created their brand Crisp they were searching for a supplier of denim but payed no attention to the fact that they needed a pattern maker first. This wasted a lot of their time that they could have spent creating a pattern and selling their product. They should have created a SWOT analysis to help identify there weakness’ and strengths. “A SWOT analysis identifies strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and can be used in many different situations” (How Brands Are Made, 36). Cam and Ben also did not make very smart investments. They got their loans from a loan shark which ultimately lost them some money rather than make money. One thing they did very well was network. They were always going to events and talking to people that they knew were in the business. “Brands can also use promotion to set a brand experience and product expectation even before the product or service is launched” (How Brands Are Made, 163). Cam and Ben were promoting their brand and trying to talk people into helping them with their product. I think that if Cam and Ben were more organized and created a list of objectives with their brand and the development of it they would have been a lot more successful. They would have been able to identify their competitors, their overall cost to make the product, the time needed, and many other things. “Any successful brand needs to be part of a clearly defined set of objectives. Good objectives are often described as ‘SMART’”(How Brands Are Made, 41). SMART is the minimum objectives that one should look at when starting a brand. It stands for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time. If they would have looked at all these objectives then I think they would've been able to do a lot more with Crisp than just selling 300 t-shirts. 

Tim Horton's

Tim Horton’s is a brand that was created in 1964. It was created by the famous hockey player Tim Horton who wanted to open up a doughnut shop. Tim Horton’s has sold coffee and doughnuts for many years. “Beyond the original menu that featured only coffee and doughnuts, Joyce expanded to include tea and hot chocolate, with an eye on warming up customers in the cold Canadian climate. The baked goods were expanded to include muffins, croissants, cookies, danishes, bagels” (http://www.timhortons.com/us/en/corporate/profile.php). Tim Hortons is the largest quick service restaurant in Canada. It also has many stores in the United States. Most of it’s stores are open 24 hours in order to serve all customers possible and make them happy. Tim Horton’s is always trying to keep its reputation of having the best coffee. “To ensure the coffee is always fresh, Tim Hortons serves its coffee within 20 minutes of being brewed or it's not served at all” ( http://www.timhortons.com/us/en/corporate/profile.php). This lets customers know that the company cares about both the customers and the quality of their product. Recently there was a big announcement made about Tim Horton’s and Burger King. The two companies will be merging together. Burger King will be buying Tim Horton for 11.4 billion dollars. “Burger King says the companies will be run separately. There won't be Whoppers alongside the doughnuts” (http://www.npr.org/2014/08/27/343623227/canadians-fret-merger-with-burger-will-change-tim-hortons). I have looked at other brands that have merged in the past and I don’t think that people will stop buying Burger King if it expands itself to Canada. If people like eating there then they will keep going there. They are not just going to abandon it because it is no longer an American brand. I think that Burger King will not lose business but rather gain some from this merger. 

Ferguson and Marketing

In the event that recently occurred in Ferguson, MO many questions have been brought to attention about the way police treat the people. We all know that police are supposed to serve and protect people in their city/town but in Ferguson this is different. Police scare people more than they protect them. “The images of police in riot gear armed with heavy weaponry and tanks has at times become the alarming backdrop for the Ferguson story, with pictures that television can’t resist” (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/08/19/heavy-metal-why-ferguson-has-conservatives-challenging-military-style-police/). This is bad because the police department is marketing themselves as being violent and ruthless. They are making it so people view them in a negative way rather than a positive way. Another way that they are marketing themselves wrong is that they don’t fully answer the questions they are asked. In the interview we watch in class, a head of one of the police departments was asked the percentage of whites on his squad. He didn’t say the percentage of whites but says “three African Americans…there are actually six but one left rarely recently..we also have a Hispanic and two Pacific Islanders” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUdHIatS36A&sns=tw). He knows that the majority of the police are Caucasian. Another way that the police department is marketing itself in a poor way is that its police are dressing like they are fighting a war. “Aside from the egregious violation of civil liberties, the most worrying development of the crackdown is how the police have appeared and acted like soldiers..treating the streets of Missouri as if they were the streets of Kabul or Baghdad. Instead of blue uniforms they’re wearing camouflage and SWAT gear…holding batons in their hands, they’re armed to the teeth with assault rifles. Instead of keeping their sidearms in their holsters, they’re pointing sniper rifles directly at civilians” (http://www.salon.com/2014/08/19/they_are_no_longer_police_why_ferguson_reminds_us_that_we_are_not_exceptional/). As a result of this people feel as if they are in a war. Police are making people feel unsafe at all times when it should be the other way around. People should feel like police are protecting them and not threatening them. Overall, Ferguson police have created themselves to be seen negatively due to their actions and their marketing. 

Networking In America

Networking is a big part of making a brand become successful. “Professional growth depends on networking, and should be viewed as an important part of your branding strategy” (http://www.business2community.com/branding/5-ways-networking-can-help-personal-brand-0899167#!bDDBwZ). In the fifth episode of "How To Make It In America", Cam and Ben show a variety of ways to network. First of all, they play basketball with a group of guys that could potentially be customers. Cam and Ben also notice an old friend in the street that is involved in the fashion industry. Cam, being the confident person he is, yells to their friend and there three men start talking. The man says how he is busy but Cam keeps akin if he wants to grab a coffee and give him and Ben tips for their brand. Their friend finally gives in. While the three men are talking, Cam and Ben’s friend says he knows a buyer from Japan who is in town for a little while. He says how he can set Cam and Ben up for a meeting with him. This is good because Cam and Ben have networked and are now creating new relationships with possible business partners. As the episode continues it is time for the meeting with the buyer. Cam shows up all alone at first and this is where he makes his first mistake. Instead of walking into the office and making himself stand out he just sits down like the rest of the people waiting. “The more unique your approach is, the better chance you have of catching the eye of potential customers” (http://www.knockoutwords.com/5-ways-you-can-make-your-brand-stand-out/). Cam should've grabbed their business cards and he should've stayed standing. If he stayed standing this would have made him stand out from everyone else. Another mistake that both Cam and Ben made was that they only had one sample. All the other designers in the office had racks of clothing. They should have provided more for the buyer to see however, when Cam and Ben leave the buyer notices Ben’s shirt. He loves the look of it and how it is has an antique feeling. Ben says how he made it himself in high school. This shows that sometimes the simple things are the best for a business. “A simple idea behind a creative output is much easier to grasp and retain than a collection of complex ideas” (More Than A Name). Cam and Ben are then asked to make 300 shirts and that is where Cam and Ben take the next step for their brand.

McDonald's and Hot Coffee

In the year 1992 McDonald's was sued by an elderly woman named Stella Liebeck for their coffee being to hot (https://www.caoc.org/?pg=facts). This story was soon spread all over the nation but did people really know the full story? The answer is no. The story that people knew was that she spilled her coffee on herself while she was driving her car. “Typical reaction: Isn’t coffee supposed to be hot? And McDonald’s didn’t pour the coffee on her, she spilled it on herself! Besides, she was driving the car and wasn’t paying attention” (https://www.caoc.org/?pg=facts). Stella was actually a passenger in the car that her grandson was driving and wanted to add cream to her coffee so she asked him to pull over. It was at this point that the coffee spilt into her lap and she received severe burns. “A vascular surgeon determined that Liebeck suffered full thickness burns (or third-degree burns) over 6 percent of her body, including her inner thighs, perineum, buttocks, and genital and groin areas” (http://www.lectlaw.com/files/cur78.htm). Stella wanted to sue McDonald’s for more money than they were willing to give her so she went to court. Stella argued that the coffee should not have been as hot as it was. McDonald’s accepted that they had done something wrong in order to defend themselves. Stella asked McDonald’s for just enough money to pay her medical bills but McDonald’s refused to give her the money. Liebeck’s attorney kept making offers. McDonald’s did not accept any of the offers so the jury had to decide. “The jury awarded Liebeck $200,000 in compensatory damages but dropped this sum to $160,000 since it felt Liebeck was 20-percent at fault for her accident…the punitive damages against McDonald’s…pegged at $2.7 million” (http://mentalfloss.com/article/26862/real-details-hot-coffee-lawsuit). It is not really known for sure whether this settlement occurred but it is known that they did reach an undisclosed out-of-court settlement. McDonald’s is also selling their coffee at a lower temperature.